Egbert Wege
Portfolio Lead Customer & Marketing
“Understanding each other - the Human Experience - is the value for all stakeholders.”
The objective of Customer & Marketing is to be the leading advisor and counterpart for CMO/CSO/CCO in all industries - with creative, as well as highly strategic and technical end-to-end offerings. How do we successfully combine the creative and the strategy/tech aspects?
"By connecting across the breadth of our people, organization, and ecosystems to form a multidisciplinary team (Strategists! Technology consultants! UX designers! Digital marketers! And more!). They collaborate to bring creativity into everything we do. The people who drive this approach are our employees – so it all starts with each one of them."
If you had to describe Deloitte’s Customer & Marketing team in 3 words, which ones would you choose?
"Visionary, diversified, makers."
What advice would you give someone who just took on a CMO/CSO/CCO role for the first time?
"The first 100 days are going to be critical in a new role. Within those 100 days, you can already know if you’re leaving a short or long-term mark. From a business perspective, within the first 100 days you should define clear strategic priorities, equip your team with the needed skills and talents and proactively manage your set plan. From a human perspective, no matter what you’re doing, you’ll always be working with humans. So listening to what your consumers tell you and being authentic is a key ingredient for every c-level role."
What would you say were the most drastic and impactful changes in the marketing world, if you compare the moment when you started your career, versus now?
"Digitalization – as much of a buzzword as it might be – has changed everything. Compared to when I first started my career, the opportunities you now have allow for customer interaction on a reactive or real-time basis. One classic example I still find inspiring is our ACNE reaction with IKEA, when we introduced the copycat Balenciaga bag within 24 hours. One billion unique media impressions was an unbelievable number even back when I started my career."
How can digital companies approach the current COVID-19 crisis, in order to turn it into a growth opportunity?
"It’s all about the human experience. We all need to focus on how to make sense of this time, reflect on and learn from it. We’ve talked to experts in the field and 56% of people want their digital experience to feel more human. For companies to turn this into growth opportunities, they have to build trust through experiences, signaling safety and redefining connection through all channels."